CCECS to Bring Popular San Francisco Dance Company Back to Hilo

The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo‘s College of Continuing Education and Community Service (CCECS) has been awarded a grant from the State Foundation on Culture and Arts to promote educational outreach to Big Island school children. The grant will be used to bring the Oberlin Dance Company (ODC) of San Francisco to Hilo in May 2004 for a short residency. During its stay, ODC will educate and entertain school children with dance workshops and performances of "The Velveteen Rabbit."

CCECS will team up with the Hawaiʻi Concert Society (HCS), which received a grant from the Atherton Family Foundation, to present the concerts that ODC will perform for the public.

"We‘re excited about this partnership because it brings the University and the community it serves together in a very beneficial way," said Dr. Margaret Haig, dean of CCECS. "Community education is a core function of CCECS, and HCS is the perfect organization to help stage these concerts, since they have been specializing in this kind of work for more than 40 years."

Other collaborators include the UH Hilo Theater, which will provide use of the Theater, and student and professional technical help with the production, and the Kamehameha Schools Hawaiʻi campus, which is also helping to fund the project.

Children and adults alike will recall ODC with great fondness from its prior Hilo residency in May of 2002, which was presented by HCS. The dancers and directors presented dance workshops for children at approximately eight different schools, greeted children at Borders bookstore, taught master classes to adult dancers and performed for school children and the public seven times. Approximately 4,000 people in Hilo attended some portion of the May 2002 ODC residency. Coordinators expect another fun, exciting, and educational experience for the community when the company returns next year.